Dear Families,
This school year has seen a plethora of changes, and we’ve all felt many emotions. Through it all, we have seen tremendous growth, grit and amazing resilience. Our first Presentations of Learning were outstanding and a testament to the support the learners are receiving from home and from our incredible staff. While academics are extremely important, our learners are also obtaining valuable social-emotional skills that will carry them through life. Most importantly, continuing to learn through project-based learning will help them to be the change makers we need for the future.
As the world is going through a tumultuous time, it will take critical thinkers, an abundance of creativity, mastery of the design and engineering process and a lot of empathy to help us through. It will also require collaboration and learning to think out of the box by coming up with a variety of solutions to problems presented. None of these skills can be fostered through rote learning. Worksheets and packets of work that have only one right answer, tests that require only memorization and feeding our children all the answers will hinder them from growing intellectually to their fullest potential. Project-based learning coupled with our social-emotional learning process will open up many avenues for our learners and keep that adaptability by allowing them to experience trial and error and become independent thinkers.
Project-based learning is deeper learning and focuses on the entire process of learning from beginning to end. While this takes more work on behalf of the learners, facilitators and families, the benefits far outweigh the frustration that can be felt at home. We are grateful for your patience, understanding and support while we strive to ensure that we give our learners all the tools necessary for success and not just the skills that are tested on a piece of paper. This is why it is essential to read emails from the facilitators and encourage your child to complete and upload the work.
We will continue to have Parent University Informational Meetings each time we launch a new project. We highly encourage you to attend these meetings with your child’s facilitator, as you and your child deserve to know all of the “whys,” “hows” and details.
We also encourage you to reach out when you do feel frustrated. We will always work with you to support you and your child.
Don’t forget about submitting your child’s themed yearbook photo, and stay tuned for our first virtual Winter Show titled New Perspectives!
With gratitude,
Lisa Latimer
School Director